Chapter XIV: Concerning the Island of Seilan

When you leave the Island of Angamanain and sail about a thousand miles in a direction a little south of west, you come to the Island of SEILAN,{1} which is in good sooth the best Island of its size in the world. You must know that it has a compass of 2400 miles, but in old times it was greater still, for it then had a circuit of about 3600 miles, as you find in the charts of the mariners of those seas. But the north wind there blows with such strength that it has caused the sea to submerge a large part of the Island; and that is the reason why it is not so big now as it used to be. For you must know that, on the side where the north wind strikes, the Island is very low and flat, insomuch that in approaching on board ship from the high seas you do not see the land till you are right upon it.{2} Now I will tell you all about this Island.

MAP to Illustrate POLO’S Chapters on the Malay Countries.

_London, John Murray, Albemarle Street._]

They have a king there whom they call SENDEMAIN, and are tributary to nobody.{3} The people are Idolaters, and go quite naked except that they cover the middle. They have no wheat, but have rice, and sesamum of which they make their oil. They live on flesh and milk, and have tree-wine such as I have told you of. And they have brazil-wood, much the best in the world.{4}

Now I will quit these particulars, and tell you of the most precious article that exists in the world. You must know that rubies are found in this Island and in no other country in the world but this. They find there also sapphires and topazes and amethysts, and many other stones of price. And the King of this Island possesses a ruby which is the finest and biggest in the world; I will tell you what it is like. It is about a palm in length, and as thick as a man’s arm; to look at, it is the most resplendent object upon earth; it is quite free from flaw and as red as fire. Its value is so great that a price for it in money could hardly be named at all. You must know that the Great Kaan sent an embassy and begged the King as a favour greatly desired by him to sell him this ruby, offering to give for it the ransom of a city, or in fact what the King would. But the King replied that on no account whatever would he sell it, for it had come to him from his ancestors.{5}

The people of Seilan are no soldiers, but poor cowardly creatures. And when they have need of soldiers they get Saracen troops from foreign parts.

[NOTE 1.—Mr. Geo. Phillips gives (_Seaports of India_, p. 216 _et
seqq._) the Star Chart used by Chinese Navigators on their return
voyage from Ceylon to _Su-men-tâ-la_.—H. C.]

NOTE 2.—Valentyn appears to be repeating a native tradition when he
says: “In old times the island had, as they loosely say, a good 400
miles (_i.e._ Dutch, say 1600 miles) of compass, but at the north
end the sea has from time to time carried away a large part of it.”
(_Ceylon_, in vol. v., p. 18.) Curious particulars touching the
exaggerated ideas of the ancients, inherited by the Arabs, as to
the dimensions of Ceylon, will be found in _Tennent’s Ceylon_, ch.
i. The Chinese pilgrim Hiuen Tsang has the same tale. According to
him, the circuit was 7000 _li_, or 1400 miles. We see from Marco’s
curious notice of the old charts (G. T. “_selonc qe se treuve en la
mapemondi des mariner de cel mer_”) that travellers had begun to
find that the dimensions _were_ exaggerated. The real circuit is
under 700 miles!

On the ground that all the derivations of the name SAILAN or CEYLON
from the old _Sinhala_, _Serendib_, and what not, seem forced,
Van der Tuuk has suggested that the name may have been originally
Javanese, being formed (he says) according to the rules of that
language from _Sela_, “a precious stone,” so that _Pulo Selan_
would be the “Island of Gems.” [Professor Schlegel says (_Geog.
Notes_, I. p. 19, note) that “it seems better to think of the
Sanskrit _šila_, ‘a stone or rock,’ or _šaila_, ‘a mountain,’ which
agree with the Chinese interpretation.”—H. C.] The Island was
really called anciently _Ratnadvīpa_, “the Island of Gems” (_Mém.
de H. T._, II. 125, and _Harivansa_, I. 403); and it is termed by
an Arab Historian of the 9th century _Jazírat al Yáḳút_, “The Isle
of Rubies.” [The (Chinese) characters _ya-ku-pao-shih_ are in some
accounts of Ceylon used to express _Yáḳút_. (_Ma-Huan, transl.
by Phillips_, p. 213.)—H. C.] As a matter of fact, we derive
originally from the Malays nearly all the forms we have adopted
for names of countries reached by sea to the _east_ of the Bay of
Bengal, _e.g._ _Awa_, _Barma_, _Paigu_, _Siyam_, _China_, _Japún_,
_Kochi_ (Cochin China), _Champa_, _Kamboja_, _Malúka_ (properly
a place in the Island of Ceram), _Súlúk_, _Burnei_, _Tanasari_,
_Martavan_, etc. That accidents in the history of marine affairs
in those seas should have led to the adoption of the Malay and
Javanese names in the case of Ceylon also is at least conceivable.
But Dr. Caldwell has pointed out to me that the Páli form of
Sinhala was _Sihalan_, and that this must have been colloquially
shortened to _Sîlan_, for it appears in old Tamul inscriptions as
_Ilam_.[1] Hence there is nothing really strained in the derivation
of _Sailán_ from Sinhala. Tennent (_Ceylon_, I. 549) and Crawford
(_Malay Dict._ p. 171) ascribe the name Selan, Zeilan, to the
Portuguese, but this is quite unfounded, as our author sufficiently
testifies. The name _Sailán_ also occurs in Rashiduddin, in Hayton,
and in Jordanus (see next note). (See _Van der Tuuk_, work quoted
above (p. 287), p. 118; _J. As._ sér. IV., tom. viii. 145; _J. Ind.
Arch._ IV. 187; _Elliot_, I. 70.) [_Sinhala_ or _Sihala_, “lions’
abode,” with the addition of “Island,” _Sihala-dvīpa_, comes down
to us in Cosmas Σιελεδίβα (_Hobson-Jobson_).]

NOTE 3.—The native king at this time was Pandita Prakrama Bahu
III., who reigned from 1267 to 1301 at Dambadenia, about 40 miles
north-north-east of Columbo. But the Tamuls of the continent had
recently been in possession of the whole northern half of the
island. The Singhalese Chronicle represents Prakrama to have
recovered it from them, but they are so soon again found in full
force that the completeness of this recovery may be doubted. There
were also two invasions of Malays (_Javaku_) during this reign,
under the lead of a chief called _Chandra Banu_. On the second
occasion this invader was joined by a large Tamul reinforcement.
Sir E. Tennent suggests that this Chandra Banu may be Polo’s
_Sende-main_ or _Sendernaz_, as Ramusio has it. Or he may have been
the Tamul chief in the north; the first part of the name may have
been either _Chandra_ or _Sundara_.

NOTE 4.—Kazwini names the brazil, or sapan-wood of Ceylon. Ibn
Batuta speaks of its abundance (IV. 166); and Ribeyro does the like
(ed. of Columbo, 1847, p. 16); see also _Ritter_, VI. 39, 122; and
_Trans. R. A. S._ I. 539.

Sir E. Tennent has observed that Ibn Batuta is the first to speak
of the Ceylon cinnamon. It is, however, mentioned by Kazwini
(_circa_ A.D. 1275), and in a letter written from Mabar by John of
Montecorvino about the very time that Marco was in these seas. (See
_Ethé’s Kazwini_, 229, and _Cathay_, 213.)

[Mr. G. Phillips, in the _Jour. China B. R. A. Soc._, XX. 1885,
pp. 209–226; XXI. 1886, pp. 30–42, has given, under the title of
_The Seaports of India and Ceylon_, a translation of some parts
of the _Ying-yai-shĕng-lan_, a work of a Chinese Mahomedan,
Ma-Huan, who was attached to the suite of Chêng-Ho, an envoy of
the Emperor Yong-Lo (A.D. 1403–1425) to foreign countries. Mr.
Phillips’s translation is a continuation of the _Notes_ of Mr. W.
P. Groeneveldt, who leaves us at Lambri, on the coast of Sumatra.
Ma-Huan takes us to the _Ts’ui-lan_ Islands (Nicobars) and to
_Hsi-lan-kuo_ (Ceylon), whose “people,” he says (p. 214), “are
abundantly supplied with all the necessaries of life. They go about
naked, except that they wear a green handkerchief round their
loins, fastened with a waist-band. Their bodies are clean-shaven,
and only the hair of their heads is left.... They take no meal
without butter and milk, if they have none and wish to eat, they do
so unobserved and in private. The betel-nut is never out of their
mouths. They have no wheat, but have rice, sesamum, and peas. The
cocoa-nut, which they have in abundance, supplies them with oil,
wine, sugar, and food.” Ma-Huan arrived at Ceylon at Pieh-lo-li, on
the 6th of the 11th moon (seventh year, Süan Têh, end of 1432). Cf.
_Sylvain Lévi, Ceylan et la Chine, J. As._, Mai-juin, 1900, p. 411
_seqq._

Odoric and the Adjaîb do not mention cinnamon among the products
of Ceylon; this omission was one of the arguments of Dr. Schumann
(_Ergänz._ No. 73 zu _Petermann’s Mitt._, 1883, p. 46) against the
authenticity of the Adjaîb. These arguments have been refuted in
the _Livre des Merveilles de l’Inde_, p. 265 _seqq._

Nicolo Conti, speaking of the “very noble island called Zeilan,”
says (p. 7): “Here also cinnamon grows in great abundance. It is a
tree which very much resembles our thick willows, excepting that
the branches do not grow upwards, but are spread out horizontally:
the leaves are very like those of the laurel, but are somewhat
larger. The bark of the branches is the thinnest and best, that
of the trunk of the tree is thicker and inferior in flavour. The
fruit resembles the berries of the laurel; an odoriferous oil is
extracted from it adapted for ointments, which are much used by
the Indians. When the bark is stripped off, the wood is used for
fuel.”—H. C.]

NOTE 5.—There seems to have been always afloat among Indian
travellers, at least from the time of Cosmas (6th century), some
wonderful story about the ruby or rubies of the king of Ceylon.
With Cosmas, and with the Chinese Hiuen Tsang, in the following
century, this precious object is fixed on the top of a pagoda,
“a hyacinth, they say, of great size and brilliant ruddy colour,
as big as a great pine-cone; and when ’tis seen from a distance
flashing, especially if the sun’s rays strike upon it, ’tis a
glorious and incomparable spectacle.” Our author’s contemporary,
Hayton, had heard of the great ruby: “The king of that Island of
Celan hath the largest and finest ruby in existence. When his
coronation takes place this ruby is placed in his hand, and he goes
round the city on horseback holding it in his hand, and thenceforth
all recognise and obey him as their king.” Odoric too speaks of
the great ruby and the Kaan’s endeavours to get it, though by some
error the circumstance is referred to Nicoveran instead of Ceylon.
Ibn Batuta saw in the possession of Arya Chakravarti, a Tamul chief
ruling at Patlam, a ruby bowl as big as the palm of one’s hand.
Friar Jordanus speaks of two great rubies belonging to the king of
SYLEN, each so large that when grasped in the hand it projected
a finger’s breadth at either side. The fame, at least, of these
survived to the 16th century, for Andrea Corsali (1515) says: “They
tell that the king of this island possesses two rubies of colour so
brilliant and vivid that they look like a flame of fire.”

Sir E. Tennent, on this subject, quotes from a Chinese work a
statement that early in the 14th century the Emperor sent an
officer to Ceylon to purchase a carbuncle of unusual lustre. This
was fitted as a ball to the Emperor’s cap; it was upwards of an
ounce in weight and cost 100,000 strings of cash. Every time a
grand levee was held at night the red lustre filled the palace, and
hence it was designated “The Red Palace-Illuminator.” (_I. B._ IV.
174–175; _Cathay_, p. clxxvii.; _Hayton_, ch. vi.; _Jord._ p. 30;
_Ramus._ I. 180; _Ceylon_, I. 568).

[“This mountain [Adam’s Peak] abounds with rubies of all kinds and
other precious stones. These gems are being continually washed
out of the ground by heavy rains, and are sought for and found in
the sand carried down the hill by the torrents. It is currently
reported among the people, that these precious stones are the
congealed tears of Buddha.” (_Ma-Huan, transl. by Phillips_, p.
213.)

In the Chinese work _Cho keng lu_, containing notes on different
matters referring to the time of the Mongol Dynasty, in ch.
vii. entitled _Hwui hwui shi t’ou_ (“Precious Stones of the
Mohammedans”) among the four kinds of red stones is mentioned the
_si-la-ni_ of a dark red colour; _si-la-ni_, as Dr. Bretschneider
observes (_Med. Res._ I. p. 174), means probably “from Ceylon.” The
name for ruby in China is now-a-days _hung pao shi_, “red precious
stone.” (_Ibid._ p. 173.)—H. C.]

---------------------------------------------------------------------- [1] The old Tamul alphabet has no sibilant.